ISIS families to return to Australia, with police waiting to make arrests

Written by: Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Four of the so-called “ISIS brides” and nine children are set to arrive in Australia from Syria imminently, with the Australian Federal Police ready to make arrests.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the group had “plans to travel to Australia”, but reiterated “the government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group”.

The Australian newspaper reported ^[1] the women and children are due to land in Sydney and Melbourne on Thursday, flying from Qatar.

Appearing at a news conference with Burke, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said “some individuals” would be arrested and charged, although she would not say how many. Minors in the group will have to take part in integration programs.

Barrett said the authorities had been investigating the women since 2015.

For more than a decade, investigators, when possible, have been collecting evidence and information in Syria at a time when Syria was a war zone with no functioning government.

That evidence and information was to determine whether Australians who travelled to Syria may have committed Commonwealth offences, including terrorism offences such as entering or remaining in declared areas and crimes against humanity offences, such as engaging in slave trading.

In relation to the children, Barrett said they “will be asked to undergo community integration programs, therapeutic support and countering violent extremist programs”.

She said the AFP and their partners would provide updates “at the appropriate time” for two reasons. “One, Australians need to know that law enforcement and security agencies are doing everything they can to keep them safe. And two, that individuals are held to account for their actions”.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess told the joint news conference the return of the group did not change the national terrorism threat level.

Of course, it’s up to them what they do when they get here, and if they start to exhibit signs that concern us, we and the police through the joint counter-terrorism teams will take action.

I’m not concerned immediately by their return, but they will get our attention as you’d expect.

Burke again stressed the government had only very limited options to prevent Australian citizens from returning from Syria.

There are very serious limits on what can be done, with respect to preventing a citizen of a country returning to their country. The legal threshold that we have is with respect to temporary exclusion orders.

The government earlier acted to put an exclusion order in place against one woman who married an ISIS fighter.